NUTS-3 ITH56 · Italy
Population
339,6122025
GDP
€10,250M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
2,636.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ITH56 · ES112
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Ferrara (Opportunity 49). Runner-up: Lugo (46). Contrarian pick: Lugo — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 95).
#1Ferrara
Strengths
Digital readiness (64) · Industrial base (58)
Red flags
Flood: 36% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Long-run slide: down 31 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
#2Lugo
Strengths
Energy cost (95) · Freight intensity (94)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Ferrara
Flood: 36% of population in the 100-year floodplain; Long-run slide: down 31 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 20) — Lugo may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Lugo · Manufacturing → Lugo · Office → Lugo · Residential → Ferrara.
Phase-2 diligence checklist
- Site-level grid connection capacity and power pricing (beyond country-grain energy data)
- Local incentives, tax regimes and permitting timelines
- Workforce depth for your specific roles (the talent pillar is a proxy)
- Real-estate availability, rents and land — public pan-EU data stops at the Nordics
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
This is a mandate-neutral read. To weight the pillars to your thesis, run these regions through the Site Screener — it ranks all 1,211 regions under your weights and exports the full PDF. First-pass macro screening, not investment advice.
Composite intelligence · 0–100 EU-percentile scores
Opportunity Indexscale + growth + access + structure
49.2
46.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
47.8
44.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
48.5
55.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
79.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
37.3
19.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
34.3
61.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
32.2
53.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.4% 5y
4.6% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
9.9% 5y
1.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€30,181
€28,852
Population density
129 /km²
33 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€9,208M
€8,584M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€314M
€1,167M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,027M
€1,348M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,749M
€751M
GVA — construction (F)
€484M
€511M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,743M
€2,196M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,400
€17,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
31,300 PPS
32,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€30,200
€29,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€45,497M
€13,447M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€12,104M
€2,235M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€74,553M
€35,979M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,459M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€113M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,762M
€1,555M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,875M
€1,808M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€9,271M
€8,692M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€78,799
€72,609
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,437M
€1,852M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
134,000
138,700
Self-employed persons
33,400
34,700
Employment in manufacturing (C)
21,900
12,800
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.5%
73.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
17.4%
24.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.1%
8.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
157,900
147,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
24,017
23,681
Enterprise births
1,673
1,480
Enterprise deaths
1,349
1,505
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.7%
3.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.1%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.8%
3.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.1%
1.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
25.3%
43.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
36.2%
53.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.1%
14.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
19.2%
25.2%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.3%
7.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.2%
96.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,929,436
1,887,944
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
691 /1k
611 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
6,842 kt
19,877 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2
26
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
31 km/1000km²
40 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
1
8
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
50
81
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
206,324
195,203
Population aged 65+
98,959
98,621
Population aged under 15
34,329
32,198
Median age of population
52.5 yrs
52.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
48.0%
50.5%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.2 /1k
3.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.8 /1k
13.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.1 /1k
4.9 /1k
Crude death rate
14.0 /1k
15.1 /1k
Live births
1,723
1,610
Deaths
4,749
4,913
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
64.6%
67.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.11
1.03
Population density (persons per km²)
139 /km²
33 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
272,864
199,442
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
8.2%
22.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.3 yrs
84.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
6.7%
16.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
369 /100k
317 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
860 /100k
785 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
212 /100k
215 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.6 /100k
0.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
34.2 /100k
13.2 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
185 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,358 /100k
130 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
61 /M
48 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.72
1.14
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.60
0.84
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.57
0.96
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.57
0.78
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.41
0.16
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.159/kWh
€0.106/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
0 m
665 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
55 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
30 days/yr
20 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
14 days/yr